This Broadway actress always comes home to Modesto; where you can see her right now

Broadway actress Tricia Paoluccio comes home every summer so her kids can experience the same life she did growing up in rural Modesto. This year, there are added professional bonuses.

Paoluccio is starring in Dolly Parton’s role as secretary Doralee in the current Music Circus stage production of “9 To 5 The Musical” in Sacramento. She’s also shooting scenes in the area for a webseries she has high hopes for, “Mommy Blogger.”

“I’m just so excited because I usually come to Modesto every summer and focus on my kids,” she said in a call from her parents’ almond ranch on Kiernan Avenue. “This summer I get to do all of that and be an actor.”

Based on the hit 1980 movie and featuring the Tony Award-nominated score by Dolly Parton, “9 To 5 The Musical” is a comedic story of friendship and revenge among three women working in an office.

The Music Circus role is particularly gratifying, even if playing a role made famous by Parton might seem a stretch – Paoluccio, a petite brunette, does not share the physical attributes of the country music legend. But, that’s easily dealt with, she said, with special costuming and makeup. It’s the voice that’s key and she already has experience playing Parton.

“I’m not someone you look at right away and think ‘Dolly Parton’,” she said. “But about 10 years ago or so, I actually played (her) at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville – the mother church of country music – in a musical, ‘Stand By Your Man’.”

It was an experience that prepared her well for the Music Circus premiere: “My goal is to channel her spirit,” Paoluccio said of Parton. “She’s a national treasure and I just happen to be able to imitate her voice.”

You’ll have to act fast to catch the Music Circus production; it concludes on Sunday, July 30. But Paoluccio’s other summer work, “Mommy Blogger,” can be seen regularly on her website. It’s a comedic take on a New Yorker who forces her husband to quit his job so they can devote their time to her video blog about parenting.

Paoluccio said such real-life vlogs are extremely lucrative in New York City, but the idea behind the series – which she created with playwright Eric Pfeffinger – is that this blog only has 17 followers. The webseries is a satirical look at mom bloggers, in the vein of HBO series “Veep” or “The Comeback,” she said.

One episode so far has been shot in Modesto this summer, with another planned to be shot at her parents’ cabin in Moccasin while the family is here. The webseries is a quick watch at about three-to-six-minutes an episode and so far there are four episodes up – the latest is the one at her family’s farm; new episodes are released Wednesday mornings. Her hope is to have it catch on and find a home at Netflix or a similar streaming service.

“Actors nowadays, we have to create our own content,” she said. “(Most) TV roles are going to movie stars.”

Acting regionally isn’t new – Paoluccio is a veteran of six Modesto Performing Arts productions. She attended Davis High School as a freshman and part of her junior year, but graduated from Principia, a boarding school in St. Louis. She moved permanently to New York in the late 1990sm and has had roles on Broadway, including playing Chava in a 2004 revival of “Fiddler on the Roof,” as well as roles in “A View From the Bridge” and “The Green Bird.” She’s also appeared off Broadway and in guest roles on TV.

And while she and her husband, director Gabriel Barre, live in midtown Manhattan, getting home to the quiet of the Central Valley each summer with their two sons remains important. The chance to appear at Music Circus has been icing on the cake. “I grew up seeing shows at Music Circus,” she said. “For New York actors, it’s one of the best regional theater jobs you can get – a quick 2 1/2 week job that pays well and they treat you well. I feel so honored to get to be a part of it.”

This story was originally published July 26, 2017 at 5:09 PM with the headline "This Broadway actress always comes home to Modesto; where you can see her right now."